It isn't often that Blizzard makes a change and then quickly goes back on it, but such was the case this week in Overwatch. A recent buff to Overwatch’s Moira that Blizzard had begun testing on the Player Test Range created so much controversy among players that it has already been reversed.
The Overwatch community is known for being passionate and vocal, and Blizzard, to its credit, usually listens. In this case, players already find Moira tough to target due to her advanced mobility, and the recent update pushed it over the edge.
The change allowed Moira to use her Fade ability even when stunned. Blizzard justified the change by saying it “reinforces her evasive nature and allows her to potentially save her team from area stuns such as Reinhardt’s Earthshatter.”
The community, on the other hand, found the buff to be overpowered in that it allowed Moria players to bounce in and out of tricky situations to an unfair degree. Videos began appearing on social media that demonstrated the seemingly unfair exploit.
While Blizzard did not comment on this backlash directly, it clearly noticed. A patch that went live yesterday to the PTR included some updates for the recently released character Sigma as well as a single line that showed they’d been paying attention:
MOIRA
Fade no longer usable while stunned.
While most fans seem relieved by this news, some Moira mains have taken to Twitter to mourn the short-lived change:
Overall, it seems like a positive decision for Blizzard to have made, and one that will encourage its players to continue to invest in the game. From time to time the developer does make a change that is poorly received by the Overwatch community or that gives too much of an advantage to one hero, and in most cases the studio is quick to respond. Luckily, there is the PTR to help Blizzard find these issues before they make their way to the live game and impact ranked play.
Overwatch is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: Blizzard PTR Patch Notes (via Playstation Life)